Henry Miller

Henry I. Miller is senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a  conservative think tank.

Background
According to a a biographical profile in a 2003 report he co-authored, Miller's research "focuses on the relationship between science and regulation, the often-excessive costs of government regulation, models for regulatory reform, and federal and international oversight of genetically engineered products. As a consultant, he advises defendants' and plaintiffs' counsel and companies on a wide spectrum of regulatory strategies and problems."

According to the profile Miller "is a prominent academic researcher, author and regulatory consultant. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Life Sciences and attended the University of California, San Diego, receiving the M.S. and M.D. degrees. After completing training in internal medicine as a Clinical Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Miller spent several years as a Research Associate at the National Institutes of Health, helping to refine and employing the recombinant DNA ("gene-splicing") techniques that were then emerging".

"Dr. Miller joined the FDA in 1979 and served in a number of posts involved with the new biotechnology. He was the medical reviewer for the early recombinant DNA-derived drugs evaluated by the FDA and was instrumental in the rapid approvals of human insulin and human growth hormone (the marketing approval of the former in five months was an FDA record at the time)," his profile states.

"He served at both the Center for Drug Evaluation and Review (CDER) and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Review (CBER). Dr. Miller later served as Special Assistant to the FDA Commissioner, with responsibility for biotechnology issues (1984-89); and from 1989-94, he was the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology. During his government service, Dr. Miller wrote and lectured frequently on the regulatory requirements for biotechnology products, and participated frequently on various expert and policy panels as a representative of the FDA or the US government. As the FDA's contact person for the Securities and Exchange Commission, he reviewed the accuracy of claims made by companies in their prospectuses about the likelihood and timing of drug approvals," his profile states.

"Dr. Miller's primary contributions have been in four areas: as a federal official, crafting and implementing science-based regulation of the new biotechnology, and explaining these policies to regulated industry, the scientific community, and the public; as a member of international panels and experts' groups, moving consensus toward the scientific view of risk and its regulation; making science and technology and their regulation more widely understood, via articles in newspapers and magazines; and performing research on and analyses of various issues related to science and technology," his profile states.

Miller on Biotechnology
With Gregory Conko he wrote in an article for the European Science and Environment Forum website which suggests that concerns about the safety of GM food are only because of "trade protectionism" and "anti-science fearmongering".

Miller and Conko argue against the adoption of the precautionary principle (PP), which would insist on safety testing of GM foods before they are released, on the grounds that "this erects an almost insurmountable barrier against new products because nothing can be proved totally safe - at least, not to the standard demanded by anti-technology extremists."

Miller spreads his message through the Heartland Institute, a Chicago based corporate funded think tank.

The 2004 article "Science Debunks Precautionary Principle" quotes Miller as saying: "A large number of people in poor nations have food allergies," (milk, wheat, and nuts) "Biotechnology can remove the allergens ... so people in developing countries can enjoy some of these foods." 

Tobacco industry document information
A 1994 memo written by the Apco Associates PR firm (now called Apco Worldwide) for Philip Morris (PM) discusses plans to create a European branch of the PM-backed "junk science" front group The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition. The memo states,

Specifically, we recommend that a European TASSC be formulated to do the following:


 * Preempt unilateral action against industry.
 * Associate anti-industry "scientific"studies with broader questions about government research and regulations • Link the tobacco issue with other more "politically correct" products.
 * Have non-industry messengers provide reasons for legislators, business executives and media to view policies drawn from unreliable scientific studies with extreme caution.

The memo specifically cites Henry I. Miller as a "key supporter" who might be willing to assist in the execution of the project:

"For example, Dr. Henry I. Miller, Visiting Fellow and Visiting Scholar of the Institute of International Studies of the Hoover Institute of Stanford University, is one example of a key supporter with strong academic and international credentials who might assist us in this project."[Italicized emphasis added.]

An undated TASSC newsletter (called "The Catalyst") contains an article stating that TASSC member-scientist Dr. Henry Miller, ("a visiting scholar from the Hoover Institution)," helped draft the 5 Guiding Principles of TASSC. Listed along with Miller as another TASSC member who helped draft the Guiding Principles is James E. Enstrom, a scientist whose work was cited in The U.S. Government's racketeering case against Big Tobacco as having assisted the tobacco industry in perpetrating fraud and deception upon the American public.

Affiliations
Miller is:
 * a director of Consumer Alert
 * a director of American Council on Science and Health
 * an Adjunct Scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute; and a
 * scientific advisor to the George C. Marshall Institute

Books
He has written a number of books including:
 * Policy Controversy in Biotechnology: An Insider's View', R.G. Landes Co. and Academic Press, 1997;
 * To America's Health: A Proposal to Reform the Food and Drug Administration, Hoover Institution Press, 2000.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Think tanks

Articles by Miller

 * Henry I. Miller, "Is there a Place for DDT?",New York Times, August 5, 2003.
 * Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko, "We are Too Safe for our Own Good", Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2001.
 * "The Perils of Precaution", Policy Review, Hoover Institution, June-July 2001. (Republished in July 2005 co-authored with Gregory Conko as a booklet ISBN B0008I5FHM).
 * Bonner Cohen, et al., ed., "The Fear Profiteers: Do 'Socially Responsible' Businesses Sow Health Scares to Reap Monetary Rewards?", February 2002.
 * Henry Miller and Gregory Conko, "Cloudy horizons in a brave new world", Financial Times, March 7, 2000.
 * Henry I. Miller and Nick Nichols, "CEOs Should Mind Their Own Business", ''Investors Business Daily", December 28, 2005.
 * Henry I. Miller "Better Science Means Safer Food", Genetic engineering and biotechnology news, Volume 27, No. 1, January 1, 2007.
 * Henry I. Miller, "Crackpot Legislation", New York Times, June, 17, 2007.
 * Henry I. Miller "Don't Cry Over rBST Milk", New York Times Friday, June 29, 2007 - Advocates injecting cows with the hormone rBST.
 * "Bioengineered Milk? No Thanks (7 Letters)", New York Times, July 5, 2007.
 * Henry I.Miller, Piero Morandini and Klaus Ammann "Is Biotechnology A Victim of Anti-Science Bias in Scientific Journals?", Trends in Biotechnology, pp 122-125;, March, 2008.